


The Reaper's Curse.

by Ashen_Artistry



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Assisted Suicide, Character Death, M/M, Murder-Suicide, Possibly classed as suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 19:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8070559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashen_Artistry/pseuds/Ashen_Artistry
Summary: Jack's tired, Gabriel's tired, this 20 year long battle has gone on long enough.It's over, isn't it?





	

_"It's over, isn't it?"_  
  
The battlefield no longer echoed with the resounding shots of gunfire, the thunderous booming of bombs over and in their place a silence that was all too deafening. The air was numbingly cool, steam rising from the earth where flames had once ignited and lined the now dead grass. There was a sense of emptiness, and it was borderline peaceful. Two men stood a couple feet from each other, faces a picture of misery as the rain fell down upon them from the heavens and concealed the tears beginning to fall from their eyes. A war, one that had raged for over 20 years, was coming to the end, a final encore of fire before it was doused out forever.  
  
Jack Morrison raised his left hand to cup the mask upon his own face, unclipping the visor and removing the piece to expose that scarred, aged face. Almost in a mirror motion, Gabriel Reyes, the Reaper, raised his right hand and removed the ivory mask adorning his own face; both of them looked tired, fatigue eroding at the once youthful happiness that had held them strong for so many years.  
  
_"It is, isn't it, Gabriel?"_  
  
Gabriel stood there, hands burying themselves into the jet black robes that covered his burnt and smoky figure. Those honey-glazed orbs once having gleamed with life now simmered with a burning hatred, much more dull than those many years ago where those embers of fight roared with passion. Oh, what Jack would have given to have seen that energy, that infuriating, contagious energy that had kept them both going for so long. Scars littered Gabriel's face, locks once the colour of onyx threaded with silver unkempt, and it was clear the man hadn't taken to the years kindly. As if that wasn't enough, but the scent of smoking flesh followed the male wherever he chose to tread, gaps of missing flesh torn into his left cheek and showed the sharpened teeth within. The man was no longer human, held together by threads of ungodly means that defied any science before it, his whole existence one big freak of nature that should never have happened. He was a monster, and as the storybooks would say, even he had his curses.  
  
Jack frowned as he received no response from the other man besides a blank stare, the tears continuing to trickle down his cheeks as rage wrapped its tendrils around him and refused to remove itself from his flesh. His brows knitted together and he approached, boots heavy on the soaked ground while his upper lip curled into a sight of pure aggression. It was then Gabriel took his time to observe the old Commander's aged expression, the scars that he himself had created. Those beautiful, bright baby blue eyes had dulled down over the tears, no longer as sharp as they used to be and it was enough to break the man's nonexistent heart. Crows feet rested at the corner of those bland orbs, brow wrinkled and aged; even with Jack beginning to shout at him, Reyes couldn't resist staring at those lips he'd once kissed and praised, now cracked and dry. Those once sun-filled strands of hair now were as grey as steel, falling into the man's reddened face as he continued to scream his anguish of the last 20 years.  
  
_"Yes, Jack. It's over now."_  
  
The confirmation stopped the man mid-sentence, their eyes locking for a solid minute as the silence once again began to deafen them. Tears continued to fall, and as the Soldier began to break before the ex-Blackwatch leader he felt his remaining hope shatter. After these years of fighting, there was no true way to come out victorious. People lived, fought, and died, hope an illusion that would be eroded away until they had nothing but their broken dreams. Jack had always been a believer in something more than this truth, but Gabriel had known from the beginning. It would be over before it had really begun, this war only delaying the inevitable. Death, itself, was inevitable.  
  
_"I wish you had died in Zürich! I wish I had too.. I wouldn't have to had seen what you, we, have become-"_  
  
Those words had slipped out in a hushed whisper, it sounding almost raspy as Jack's throat tightened and felt very dry. His lungs burned with the desire to scream some more, though the man's voice could hardly handle a whisper as he glared up at the man who'd taken a couple of steps before him.  
  
_"-why couldn't things have stayed the same? Why did you have to leave, after everything you and I had been through? You said you loved me, Gabe, you said you'd always be by my side and support me! What does that make you, a coward or a liar?"_  
  
A hand was raised in hesitation before being pulled back, Gabriel refusing to even touch the man who's very being was being shattered into thousands of miniscule pieces. Even though deep within his very core he wanted to wrap his arms around that trembling form, abandon his weaponry and hatred in favour of the love he still held for the other man, it wasn't physically possible.  
  
_"I'm tired, Gabriel. I'm tired, and I want to rest."_  
  
That caught his attention and raised the alarms in Reyes' head, and as he saw the determined glint in Jack's eye he moved to back away. He could wraith his way away from the other, but he knew by this point he would only be tracked down.  
  
_"I want you to hold me, just as you used to."_  
  
The Reaper clenched his fists and grit his sharp teeth, a last strain of resistance. He couldn't, he wouldn't, hold Jack.. He knew what would happen to him should he do so, and after everything he couldn't accept the consequences of such an action. The consuming hatred of over 20 years had eaten away at his soul until it was nothing but as dark as coal, but when fronted with the one chance he had to finally cease this pointless suffering...he could no longer do it.   
  
_"I can't-"_

 _"Please, Gabe.. It's over, you said it yourself.. I want to rest now, i'm too tired."_  
  
The repetition of his plea only broke Gabe, cracking at his resolve and restraint and watching it slowly cave in. The tension slowly began to drain from the Reaper's body, it holding a corporeal form that only flickered with the sudden spike of emotion as those dark robes changed into his old uniform- the Blackwatch uniform. Tears had filled his eyes, those dark chocolate orbs closing as his cheeks felt damp. To the best of his abilities, he'd attempted to make himself look as Jack had once known, though the gaps in his cheek were unable to be hidden at all.  
_"I can't lose you, Jack.. You know what will happen-"_  
  
_"I know.. and i'd rather it happen in your arms than in the open under gunfire. Talon will kill me the second they find me, you know that as well as I do. Please, Gabe..give me this little bit of mercy, after everything."_  
  
The reasoning was sound, if not extremely painful, and slowly the last bit of resolve left Gabriel's eyes. If Jack remained here, he would be shot on sight if he was lucky, but the much more likely option would be that he'd be tortured for information and then slaughtered before everyone, including Gabriel. __  
  
Slowly, Gabe's arms opened wide and there was the softest of smiles on his face, those tears continuing to stream down his face in a bitter-sweet manner. There was a come hither gesture given, and for a moment there was bliss when Jack pressed his face into his chest and held onto him for dear life. He enveloped the smaller man in his embrace and cradled him, fingers combing through those greyed locks and stroking down the back of his head protectively. Already, he could feel Jacks trembles settling down, and as the once blond male peered up at him the Reaper couldn't resist pressing their lips together for once last time. _"_ _I'm sorry-"_  
  
Those words were left imprinted on Jack's lips after a moment, though the Soldier couldn't hear a word of it. A buzzing had filled his ears like a thousand flies, his body feeling light and weightless as darkness began to seep in from all around him. Gabe. Gabe was the only thing that he knew existed in that darkness, and as tears leaked from his partially blind orbs he could only give a smile. From his fingertips he was beginning to erode away, his skin paling and looking ill while his veins turned an unearthly black. He was losing consciousness, but it didn't stop him from kissing Gabriel again and again as if it were the last thing he'd do.  
It was the last thing he'd do. __  
  
_"Thank you, Gabriel."_ The shorter man whispered, voice so far away to his own mind as his grip loosened and became nonexistent. _"Thank you..."_  
  
_"I love you, Jack.."_ Gabe's sob came in return, the male entangled in an emotional wreck of horror, guilt, anger and sorrow. This was his fault from the very beginning, and now Jack was paying the price. The feeling of lips on his own died away as the Soldier's body caved in on itself, turning to dust and being carried off into the breeze. The only remaining sensations were the tingling on his lips, and the aching of his very soul. _"Goodbye..."_  
  
To love someone but never be able to hold them; to never be able to comfort them; to kiss them; to cherish them and support them through everything. To be separated, and to turn love to hatred over the years he could be nothing more than a witness to what his actions had done.  
  
This, was Gabriel's curse, and as he screamed his anguish to the heavens, his own body lost its physical form and became nothing but black smoke- the source of the scream undetectable to anyone whom may have heard it. He would never be able to die, never be able to end his suffering.. but he could accept that he had saved Jack from a fate not worth living.

**Author's Note:**

> This hurt me to write, but I suppose it can be classed as a vent fic. The idea was basically that anyone who Reaper loved touched turned to dust and ash, a kind of Medusa curse maybe? I don't know. I'd say enjoy but this hurt.
> 
> I don't know if I will or not, but I may write more of this cursed!Reaper idea, any comments on whether I should or not would be appreciated!


End file.
